How did we forget these scandalous scandals? Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the Hollywood controversies that got overshadowed by other scandals throughout the years.
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00:00 It's beautiful.
00:02 It belongs in a museum.
00:05 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the Hollywood controversies
00:10 that got overshadowed by other scandals throughout the years.
00:13 Hey, you wanna see something really scary?
00:17 Number 10, The Dark Satire of Heathers
00:20 Do I look like Mother Teresa? If I did, I probably wouldn't mind talking to the geek squad.
00:25 Depending on who you ask, this high school comedy is either a brilliant underrated satire,
00:29 or a dated and misguided story that trivializes taboo subjects.
00:33 Winona Ryder plays Veronica, a popular girl involved in the deaths of her popular classmates.
00:38 I just killed my best friend.
00:40 And your worst enemy.
00:42 Same difference.
00:44 Though it has plenty of prescient points about the sensationalization of school violence,
00:48 many viewers and critics worried its tone could be misinterpreted.
00:51 The movie's storyline made headlines again when the controversial TV series was announced.
00:55 If the lackluster, if not hostile reception to that series is any indication,
00:59 Heathers still has the power to get people riled up.
01:02 Today was great. Chaos was great.
01:05 Chaos is what killed the dinosaurs, darling.
01:08 Number 9, Aloha Casting Controversy
01:11 Oh, Captain Rang-Eye.
01:12 It's Ng.
01:13 It's like Rang, but without the R or the I.
01:15 It's just Ng.
01:16 This 2015 rom-com is about a former US Air Force officer falling for a pilot, Captain Allison Ng.
01:22 Ng was based on a real person who had Chinese and Hawaiian heritage.
01:26 So, naturally, there was confusion and outright vitriol when Emma Stone was cast in the role.
01:31 Writer-director Cameron Crowe insisted she was based on a real person who, despite her heritage, was red-headed like Stone.
01:37 Well, sir, I will also be an invaluable addition to our joint mission.
01:41 I am a quarter Hawaiian.
01:43 Ho'olalea.
01:44 The casting reopened a larger conversation about whitewashing in Hollywood movies.
01:48 Stone has since expressed regret for taking the role, quite publicly, in fact.
01:52 She even shouted out an impromptu apology at the 2019 Golden Globes in response to a joke made by co-host Sandra Oh.
01:58 It is the first studio film with an Asian-American lead since Ghost in the Shell and Aloha.
02:04 Number 8, I Heart Huckabee's Set Drama
02:13 I'll find a lawyer.
02:14 Oh, or maybe even go to the FBI. How about that?
02:16 David O. Russell is infamous for his combative approach to filmmaking.
02:20 Actors like Amy Adams and George Clooney have had run-ins with the volatile director,
02:24 but Lily Tomlin went toe-to-toe with him right on camera.
02:27 Leaked behind-the-scenes footage from the set of I Heart Huckabee's
02:30 showed Tomlin and Russell in two separate, expletive-laden confrontations.
02:34 Now, this happened on a movie set on a regular basis, and this was just a cheat.
02:40 No, it happened twice.
02:41 Twice. Twice to you.
02:43 We were high-strung, both of us.
02:45 Russell even begins destroying the set at one point,
02:47 tossing out misogynistic names at the actress.
02:50 Since the blow-up, Tomlin's insisted that she and the director are good friends.
02:53 To them, it was just an extremely heated professional disagreement.
02:56 Our mission has nothing to do with this nuts petroleum fixation.
03:00 This is systic, toxic, what?
03:02 Why don't you just call me?
03:03 You want me to drive cars, right?
03:04 I have a BMW SUV, and I like driving.
03:07 I'm sorry.
03:08 Number 7, The Juno Effect?
03:11 Your parents are probably wondering where you are.
03:13 I mean, I'm already pregnant, so what other kind of shenanigans can I get into?
03:18 This 2007 coming-of-age story about a sarcastic and effortlessly cool teenager
03:23 who ends up pregnant created a stir come awards season.
03:26 Outside of introducing phrases like "home skillet" into the public lexicon,
03:30 according to Time magazine,
03:31 it may have also contributed to a statistical uptick in real-life teen pregnancies.
03:36 That ain't no Etch-a-Sketch.
03:38 This is one doodle that can't be undid, home skillet.
03:41 When several girls became pregnant at a high school in Massachusetts,
03:44 the media was quick to point the finger at movies like Juno
03:47 that they felt made teen pregnancy trendy.
03:50 This charge didn't necessarily stand up under any scrutiny.
03:53 If writer Diablo Cody expressed any regret about the movie,
03:56 it's that some took the character's choice not to terminate the pregnancy
03:59 as an anti-choice message.
04:00 All babies want to get born.
04:03 All babies want to...
04:05 God appreciates your miracle!
04:09 Number six, Super Mario Bros. goes down the tubes.
04:12 What single-cell organism did you evolve from?
04:15 Tyrannosaurus Rex, the Lizard King. Thank you very much.
04:19 Long before Chris Pratt voiced the beloved Nintendo character,
04:22 a live-action Super Mario Bros. movie became notorious for its truly dazzling failure.
04:27 Despite its use of innovative special effects,
04:29 the movie was a huge bomb,
04:31 failing to recoup its budget and topping many of 1993's worst of lists.
04:35 Okay, look, how many Mario's are there between the two of you?
04:38 There's three. There's Mario Mario and Luigi Mario.
04:41 Its lead actors hated working on the film,
04:44 and Mario actor Bob Hoskins would go on to say that it was the worst movie of his career.
04:48 Nintendo would be a lot more careful with film rights to its franchises as a result.
04:52 Given how horrendously received the original was,
04:54 it's a wonder the 2023 animated version was made at all.
04:57 I'd call them the Super Mario Bros.
05:00 Yes!
05:05 Number 5. Heaven's Gate ends the New Hollywood movement.
05:08 You're not in my class, kid. You never will be.
05:12 You have to die first and be born again.
05:15 In the Hollywood of the 1970s, the directors ruled.
05:18 Visionary directors like Scorsese, Spielberg, Coppola,
05:22 and others were the leaders of the New Hollywood era of filmmaking.
05:25 However, their movies saw diminishing returns as the decade wore on,
05:29 and Michael Cimino's 1980 epic western put the final nail in the coffin.
05:33 Cimino's perfectionism led to numerous takes and delays,
05:36 which led to a ballooned budget and a near four-hour runtime.
05:40 It's getting dangerous to be poor in this thing, Vick.
05:43 Isn't it?
05:45 It always was.
05:47 Heaven's Gate was also picketed upon release
05:50 due to accusations of mistreatment of animals on set.
05:53 The movie flopped hard, both critically and financially,
05:56 and became symbolic of the excesses of the period.
05:59 Its failure gave studios the ammunition they needed to tighten the reins
06:03 and the spending of their creators.
06:05 Do you remember the...
06:07 good...
06:11 gone days?
06:13 Number four, the conqueror of films near a nuclear testing site.
06:16 She will bring woe to you, my son, and to your people.
06:21 A movie starring John Wayne as Mongolian Emperor Genghis Khan
06:25 is a terrible enough idea that can make you sick,
06:27 but this notorious 1956 epic was accused of making its cast and crew literally sick.
06:32 The Conqueror was filmed downwind from a nuclear testing site,
06:35 whose radioactive dirt was then shipped to Hollywood to create consistency
06:39 between scenes filmed on location and studio sets.
06:42 For good or ill,
06:45 she is my destiny.
06:48 Over the next several years, a large portion of the movie's stars and crew
06:52 developed fatal cancers.
06:53 Even visitors to the set would develop cases.
06:55 Although there are skeptics who insist these numbers are consistent with national averages,
06:59 it's a connection that the film's producer, Howard Hughes,
07:02 felt guilty about in his later years.
07:04 Let two men guard this woman in her tent.
07:08 If ill befalls her,
07:10 they shall die the slow death.
07:12 Number three, depiction of teenagers in Thirteen.
07:15 How do you explain $860 in your purse?
07:19 What do you expect me to say, Mom?
07:22 We jacked it, okay?
07:24 Nikki Reed was only 13 when she co-wrote the screenplay to this indie drama,
07:28 so the fact that it was based on her life was a little disturbing for a lot of folks to handle.
07:32 Thirteen follows two middle schoolers engaging in various illicit behaviors
07:36 that parents and producers didn't want to believe.
07:38 Oh, damn.
07:41 How long is this gonna last?
07:44 For some screenings, director Catherine Hardwick even had to bring in experts
07:48 on juvenile delinquency to speak to audience concerns.
07:51 Even Reed and her co-star Evan Rachel Wood felt the pressure of it all,
07:55 later revealing that they didn't speak for years after the film was completed.
07:58 You're really cruel, Tracy.
08:01 I mean, I'm sure you can be a sweet kid when you want to,
08:04 but right now, you're a really bad influence.
08:07 Number two, deaths on the Twilight Zone set.
08:10 You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance,
08:13 of things and ideas.
08:15 You've just crossed over into the Twilight Zone.
08:19 In 1982, John Landis was filming his segment for the Twilight Zone anthology film
08:24 with star Vic Morrow and two child actors.
08:26 The scene called for Morrow's character to rescue two children
08:29 from a village during the Vietnam War amid heavy fire and explosions.
08:33 One of these explosions caused a real helicopter to crash,
08:36 killing Morrow and the children.
08:38 In the dock are the director John Landis and four associates,
08:40 all charged with the involuntary manslaughter four years ago
08:43 of three actors, including Vic Morrow,
08:45 in an accident that took place during the filming of Twilight Zone.
08:48 The tragedy and ensuing trial for manslaughter
08:50 uncover the shoot's outrageous labor violations.
08:53 Landis neglected to secure waivers that would allow the children to work at night,
08:57 especially in a scene with explosives.
08:59 The director and various crew members were acquitted.
09:01 However, the event led to stricter guidelines for set safety
09:04 and effectively ended Landis' friendship with Steven Spielberg,
09:07 his co-producer on the film.
09:09 Bill, you look kind of cranky this evening.
09:11 Yeah, I'm pissed all right.
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09:28 In the 1940s, no Hollywood actress typified virtuous femininity
09:42 like Casablanca star Ingrid Bergman.
09:45 But in 1949, the Swedish born screen goddess teamed up
09:48 with Italian neo-realist Roberto Rossellini
09:51 in a role that ran counter to her established persona.
09:54 And the making of Stromboli led to a firestorm of controversy
09:57 when the married actress had an affair
09:59 and became pregnant with the director's child.
10:01 But what is the matter? Why are you all against me?
10:04 I haven't hurt anyone. Why does everyone act like this?
10:06 She was denounced on the floor of the US Senate
10:09 and right-wing gossip columnists like Hedda Hopper stoke the hate.
10:12 Bergman remained in Italy.
10:14 She was still hated in the US when she made Anastasia,
10:16 her first Hollywood movie in seven years.
10:18 Despite winning an Oscar for that role,
10:20 she wouldn't appear publicly in Hollywood for another three years.
10:23 Yes, I understand him too, father, but who understands me?
10:26 Which of these movie scandals did you remember?
10:28 Tell us in the comments.
10:30 Not an easy day to forget.
10:32 No.
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10:40 [music]